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FUTURE PROOFING

Allotment House is a London cottage on the Dulwich Estate that is being entered for the DMI Environmental category with its extension designed around the day-to-day use of the garden and home-grown produce. It ticks the wellbeing box, too.

There is a covered seat space on the rear facade with a place for taking your Welles off or sitting in the garden surrounded by the newly planted scented shrubbery and flowers. Under the seat are tanks to collect rainwater.

Natural materials have been used have been used where possible in the structure. Reduce-carbon concrete was poured to create the base of the foundations before using timber for the rest of the frame to its lower environmental impact, explains architect Rhys Owen of Pensaer. "The tanks reduce water consumption from the mains and future proof the property for warmer summers and droughts," he adds.

Less steel, more timber (such as oak and larch) is prevalent in the longlist. "We have seen an increase in the popularity of timber for the aesthetics and environmental reasons. But it is also more cost effective and less impacted by inflation than concrete and steel." says Owen.